The Castiglioni Effect- 06.28.10

Yes, i’m cleaning up a bit ~ my house, my closets, my computers… and a few posts i’ve been dying to post that fell through the cracks as i went a little travel crazed the last few months! This exhibition still blows my mind looking back on the pictures i just found!

A tribute to an unfamiliar side of Achille Castiglioni. “Effetto Castiglioni”, an exhibition at the e De Padova showroom for Milan Design Week, presented for the first time the models of exhibit designs and architectural projects by this great master. Twenty-three models stored until today at the Studio Museo Achille Castiglioni of the Triennale Design Museum leave their cardboard boxes to narrate the expertise of Castiglioni, in a path that extends from the 1950s to 2000. Projects documented precisely at the crucial moment of the creative idea: the model. They are unbelievably detailed and playfully creative for their time (actually, even for NOW!) ~ you have to see the one made of cheese, the one that feels like a kaleidoscope, and more… see the pics on the next page!

Yes, cheese was used by Achille to model and describe his concept for the “Gruppo Rionale Fascista” building in 1940 (project never built).

Achille Castiglioni, in the early years with his brother Pier Giacomo and then with his staff, patiently shaped and brought to life every creative intuition through the use of plaster casts, cardboard and materials of all kinds, to test the functional efficacy of his ideas. To experience their “effect”.

Photographs of the tensile structure for the RAI travelling exhibition created in 1967, The model below, made of wood and plastic was created by Pier Giacomo and Achille. The human figurines used in the models are fantastic; love how he developed a very particular style to narrate human scenes.

Love how the use of diminutive human figurines communicate the feeling of the massive scale of the project. We wonder if this was a father and son scene inside the church.

Their attention to details on their Agip-Eni Pavillion installation model and the curved “crack” on the the Italian pavillion for the Palexpo in Geneva model’s roof definitely invites you to take a closer look.

One of the “Mysterious Models”, (projects never built and unknown by the Museum) is a triangular tunnel with reflective interiors.That space would’ve been an intriguing place to visit.